On again, off again plan to be finalized

Summit County, CO Colorado

SUMMIT COUNTY - A long-delayed regional Forest Service plan for protecting lynx will include the White River National Forest and consider the potential effects of the pine beetle epidemic on habitat for the threatened cats.

The regional forest plan amendments for the southern Rockies should be finalized within the next two months, said Forest Service team leader Lois Poppert. One of the final steps is finding agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for protecting and recovering animals on the endangered species list.

Once they are adopted, the regional guidelines could have a direct effect on the way local national forest lands are managed, with guidelines for road-building, recreation and logging.

Interim lynx measures

Putting the White River National Forest (WRNF) back under the framework of the regional plan is a change from several years ago. When the WRNF plan was finalized in 2002, the forest was excluded from the regional measures. The plan included what were then called model standards for lynx management.

But after the WRNF plan was appealed to the highest levels, top officials decided to include the forest after all - for the sake of consistency, Poppert said.

"We did try to look at new information that has come out since the draft was issued," Poppert said.

The spread of pine beetles across vast areas of the region is a significant change, Poppert said.

The regional guidelines will also look at the relationship between fuels and forest health projects and the need to protect lynx habitat, said Nancy Warren, the threatened and endangered species program leader at the regional Forest Service level.

Both the insect outbreak and the associated logging activities can affect the availability of food for snowshoe hares, which browse on low-growing evergreen branches. The hares are the single most important food source for lynx.

That's why it's important to look at the relationship between the "ramping up" of fuels projects and the lynx guidelines, Warren explained.

Other new information included in the regional plan comes from the latest Colorado Division of Wildlife research on the re-introduced lynx population in the state, she added.

Transplanted lynx have been denning and breeding in Colorado since about 2003. The tracking data from the state wildlife agency will provide much better site-specific information on what type of habitat is most important for the rare cats. The Forest Service will include that data in the regional guidelines, Warren said.

The regional protection plan is aimed at resolving some of the basic questions about lynx conservation in the southern Rockies. In its original listing decision, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pinpointed the lack of a comprehensive public land planning framework as one the of the key threats to lynx.

Bob Berwyn can be reached at (970) 331-5996, or at bberwyn@summitdaily.com.